A Different Kind of Friendship
by Nightquesttarja
Summary: Mike never particularly liked animatronics. They were always so cold, so lifeless. And working the night-shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria has only served to worsen that view. However, when one incident occurs with a specific animatronic, he starts to reconsider.


**Disclaimer: I own no rights to Five Nights at Freddy's or its characters.**

**A/N: The animatronics and story deviate slightly from the game itself.**

**The story starts on the third night.**

* * *

Mike was never one for animatronics—their cold lifeless bodies just standing upright, fixed in a single glaring position as if they were meant to frighten you. Yet the children simply adored the animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Perhaps they just didn't know of their nightly activities…

There were three of them—four actually, counting the one veiled behind Pirate Cove… He'd only happen to see that sneering face just briefly on his second night and it had been too dark to actually distinguish a face. But the haunting glow of those two piercing metal eyes had been more than enough to ward away all curiosities. And all he had to do was just keep that… _thing_ behind those curtains in whatever secluded purpose it was there for.

But focusing all his faculties on that, he would surely end up with the slicing twist of Bonnie's frayed-wired hands around his vulnerable throat, ultimately dragging him to his metal sarcophagus where his skin would be peeled away and his bones crushed.

But there was also Chica, the chicken who stalked him with a patient, penetrating gaze through the thin glass of the pitiful security room. She stood so still, her beak wide open from the rust of time yet it seemed as though it was of her own volition—as if she was eager to peck at his living flesh and devour him. But, maybe it was just the words highlighted on her bib; an obnoxious: "LET'S EAT!" that invoked this dreadful feeling.

He tried to ignore it, rapidly clenching and unclenching his fists to return himself to calm. Glancing at the remaining power, he realized it was at a mere 44%. And it was surely draining away faster now as he kept the right door sealed to keep Chica out.

He checked the camera on the main stage; saw Freddy still standing jovially by himself. That one never moved it seemed, and he wasn't even sure it could. That didn't bother him though—the fewer metal killers roaming around the better!

He suddenly threw the camera shut as he heard a menacing scraping just outside the dark doorway on his left. His arms were heavy with steel as he reached for the door-switch. But a shrilling whisper—horribly fragmented—brushed his ears the moment he did.

"Y-y-y-you-you're not supposed-ed t-t-to be here after hou-hours."

Mike was frozen in fear at the male animatronic voice; his arm paralyzed just before the switch as a large purple hand came from the darkness and grabbed his wrist. Bumps shot up his arm at the cold metallic touch—its grasp gentle as its coding most likely was based around the interaction of small children.

Despite this, he desperately tried to jerk away, but to no avail, the metal had him firmly. There were no thoughts in his head now, except for fear and death.

The other door, long closed to keep out Chica, quickly snapped open permitting the entrance of the animatronic. Her feminine voice carried a slight fragment, not quite as dramatic as Bonnie's.

"Little children should not be here without their parents." She rebuked. "We will take you back."

In one final surge of desperation, Mike grabbed his mug filled with water from his desk and dashed its contents across Bonnie's face.

The metal rabbit twitched from the water seeping in its servers and released his grasp on the security guard. Mike darted as fast as he could past the shorting animatronic and down the hall toward freedom. What he didn't expect though was to run headlong into a sprinting metal fox.

He flew back in collision with the tiled floor, the fox standing unscathed from. Those ghostly white eyes stared down at him, cold and reserved.

Mike felt his chest constrict as he saw the withered body, holes torn everywhere from his bright chest to his crimson arms. "Run! You m—ust get out now!" he yelled in his pitched, damaged voice.

Mike knew he should have been terrified, but there was something in the tone of the fox's synthetic pirate-like voice that spoke not in mockery, but…sympathy.

He was _helping_ him!

The security guard felt shocked at this display and couldn't help wincing as Fox grabbed his arm to pull him up. Unfortunately the fox's unguarded metal hand cut deeply into the man's arm, earning a wail of pain from him.

"Run!" he said. And for the first time, his eyes revealed emotion—they were apologetic as they glared at the dripping wound on his forearm. "The others—" his voice cut out momentarily, before jumping back to say, "coming!"

Mike said not another word as he turned as ran across the party room toward the front exit. He didn't care if he got fired for leaving early, he didn't know why he even returned after the first night! He was grateful for that fox saving his life though. But it was an animatronic, it couldn't have shown such human emotions! But from the look in its eyes, that's exactly what it felt like.


End file.
